Huntington High School’s National Math Honor Society chapter celebrated Pi Day in appropriate fashion; by eating and throwing pies.
A series of pie contests drew a variety of entries.
Pi Day is observed throughout the world on March 14. Get it? 3.14. Pi (Greek letter “π”) is the math symbol used to denote a constant; the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, which calculates out to approximately 3.14159.
“Pi has been calculated to over one trillion digits beyond its decimal point,” according to the Pi Day website. “As an irrational and transcendental number, it will continue infinitely without repetition or pattern. While only a handful of digits are needed for typical calculations, Pi’s infinite nature makes it a fun challenge to memorize, and to computationally calculate more and more digits.”
Nearly 70 Huntington Math Honor Society members and other interested students gathered in the cafeteria after school to join together in some good natured fun. “We had four contests,” said Monica Racz, who along with math department colleague Keith Mattis serves as the organization’s faculty advisor.
The pie contest winners included:
- Best Tasting: Meagan-Elise Malone (Gift certificate to Jonny D’s Pizza)
- Most Circular: Julia Segal (Kerber’s Farm gift card)
- Most Mathematical: Charlotte Smith (Kerber’s Farm gift card)
To help raise monies for the Math Honor Society’s scholarship fund, students bought raffle tickets for the opportunity to good naturedly “throw” a pie in a faculty member’s face. The fun loving teachers who volunteered for the messy job included James Graber, Dave Moriarty, Dianna Cazzalino, Paul Caleca, Trish Avelli, Amanda Scott, Jen Bendersky and Johnathan Noyes. “The pie throwing was the highlight,” Ms. Racz said.
“It was so much fun seeing the teachers and students get involved and come together for a fun day,” Ms. Malone said.
There were many tasty treats on hand, including a blueberry pie donated by Kerber’s. Huntington Superintendent James W. Polansky even joined the fun in the high school cafeteria.
Huntington’s Math Honor Society chapter is led by executive board officers Katherine Stock (president), Jack Farrell (vice-president), Arashdeep Singh (treasurer), Charles Sze (secretary) and Jack Langton (tutoring coordinator).